Court of Appeals Hears Arguments In Federal Case Involving Alabama’s Former Governor

Earlier this week, the Federal Court of Appeals that sits here in Atlanta, Georgia heard arguments in the federal criminal case involving Alabama’s former Governor and former Health South executive Richard Scrushy. As I previously discussed here, there are a number of interesting issues presented in this federal criminal appeal, including the issue of whether it was legally improper for the federal judge that heard the matter to have ex parte conversations with an agent of the Department of Justice concerning an issue presented in a then-pending motion.

In addition to this argument, lawyers representing the defendants in this matter presented a number of other arguments to the Court of Appeals here in Atlanta. For instance, Mr. Siegelman’s lawyer argued that the Government presented insufficient evidence of an explicit quid pro quo and therefore Mr. Siegelman’s conviction on the federal bribery charge should be overturned. Additionally, Mr. Scrushy’s lawyer argued that Scrushy’s conviction should be overturned because of improper jury conduct that allegedly occurred both before and during jury deliberations.

This federal political corruption case has attracted a lot of national attention and according to the New York Times, there is currently a Congressional investigation looking into whether Mr. Siegelman was targeted and investigated for political reasons. You can find the full story concerning the oral arguments and other developments in this case here.